I wrote a short overview on this book over at Joyful Jubilant Learning last month. I thought I'd explore a little more today. What tickles my imagination more than anything else in The Starfish and the Spider is the explanation that there is no hierarchy or structure in a starfish organization. When taking notes in this book, I can't tell you how many times I wrote Starship instead of Starfish. In my sub-c they must be one in the same.

Ori and Rod explain that a decentralized organization is built on a foundation of five legs:

Circles

The Catalyst

Ideology

The Preexisting Network

The Champion

Circles consist of folks who buy into the organizations ideology. Norms are a circles backbone. Whereas rules are someone else's idea of what you should do. Norms are the ideology that you joined the organization for in the first place. As the norms of a circle mature, trust develops.

My concept of a circle is that everyone involved knows what they gotta do. If a person doesn't buy in they are collectively eased out. This type of environment is wildly liberating.

The Catalyst is someone who forms a circle then quietly fades into the background. The lads say the catalyst lets go of the leadership role and transfers leadership to the circle. Ori and Rod say that a catalyst has the following tools.

Genuine interest in others

Loose connections

Mapping

Desire to help

Passion

Meet people where they are

Emotional intelligence

Trust

Inspiration

Tolerance for ambiguity

Hands off approach

Receding

You'll notice in the comment section of my post at Joyful Jubilant Learning, Rosa Say, the ultimate and consummate manager raises an eyebrow to all this decentralized, non-hierarchy type of talk. As someone who has logged twenty eight or nine years as a manager, I need to articulate to Rosa and myself why I am enamored with the Starfish gig.

First and foremost we all buy into the same ideology, the same mission. Perhaps just as important, there is no bureaucracy to weigh you down. I perfected the craft of protecting my staff from bureaucratic meddlers - my bosses. I hated doing it and it wore me down. But I love the concept of channeling strengths and letting folks do what they do best.

In my vision of a circle within a decentralized organization, there is no dilution. One part water to a straight up whiskey is dilution. One part slacker to a circle dilutes the circle. I do not like dilution.

The Starfish and the Spider is a most excellent book! It gently guides one to the fringe, to think outside of their norm and this is the environment where great things always happen.

In true Starfish form, Ori and Rod open up information for us in the form of a wiki.

I am one chapter short of smoking and signingMavericks at Work by William C. Taylor & Polly LaBarre. Bill and Polly present insights and case studies on companies and people who are today, running the companies of tomorrow.

As I read about these present day mavericks who build on purpose and fuse character with innovation to make a difference for their employees and customers, I couldn't help but to think of a theme that the authors weave throughout their work: Why should great people join your organization?

I work in an industry that is starved for technical people. And I don't mean hungry, I mean Ethiopia. As a manager who hires these folks, I myself need to be able to articulate this answer with crisp clearness (which I've never satisfactorily done). In tune with some words I wrote the other day about working in transparency, I'd like to answer this question with a public statement about why folks should work with my team. I probably will have to return and tweak this - which is the point.

Once we've established that a candidate fits our culture of:

The need to develop personally

Respect for each other and our customers

Loyalty to each other

The desire for excellence

The desire to move forward

...then I can say with confidence:

You should work with my team because: We are going to dial you into a world of learning, a world where we channel your strengths toward finding solutions for our customers...(in progress)

I have been employed, as in contributing to social security, for thirty-four years. Approximately twenty-nine of those years have been spent in management. I've often said my official position has been that of fire hydrant...as in those above me use it and those I manage use it...as a dog uses it. But this is the glass half empty view of management. When looking at the position through the lens of it's all good, it can be so much more.

Out of sheer necessity, the largest portion of my career*has been spent providing air cover for those who report to me. While the thrill of seeing an associate excel and succeed at something because you've isolated him from upper management danger is exhilerating, it isn't what I enjoy the most about management. For me, the best part of this position has been the outcome of connecting an associate with resources, channeling their strengths toward the appropriate role and customer and then allowing them to do their work. That outcome? An evangelistic customer!

To be sure, one can provide resources, channel strengths and get out of the way and not create evangelistic customers. I believe a manager must first get the right people on the bus. It has been my experience that once the team understands what you are doing, it has a tendency to shed members not going in this direction. My analogy to this involves pirana, the fish. Your team is a school of pirana. New members are an animal carcass. Dip the carcass into the pirana. If it comes back devoid of meat, toss the bones and go find another carcass.

Creating an evanglistic customer with engaged associates - that's it for me. Nothing less complicated. Nothing more complicated.

*I presently have the good fortune, the most excellent fortune, of working for a company that doesn't require my skill as a pilot.

"It is impossible to solve significant problems with the same level of knowledge that created them." Albert Einstein

Can a more relevant statement in any business book, publication or Web site be found...in all of history? Status quo thinking is deep space. There isn't oxygen in either. How far can one get without oxygen?

Anastasia Goodstein brings us oxygen today: Talking about Gen Y @ Work. Anastasia, a Gen Xer, gives us 10 Tips for Creating a Gen Y Friendly Workplace. She had spoke at a CIO conference and noted how some execs thought Gen Yers acted as brats. Yeah, and so do some Boomers. The point is we need to not only learn how to get along together, we Boomers and Xers need to incorporate and utilize the Yer's talents and ideas!

I am curious to your opinion of the nap time program instituted by the one conference attendee. ???

Hello I don't understand you won't you tell me your nameHello I don't understand you why don't you get in the game"

Dude! I hope there are not too many other cats like you out there...especially in management positions!

Daniel Ruth, columnist for The Tampa Tribune, writes an article about college students and the Facebook phenomenon. Judging from Mr. Ruth's picture, his origin can be traced to the Baby Boomer years, just like mine. Judging from Daniel's discourse, his mind is still there. I merely state this as an observation, not a slam. Daniel asks a class of college students that he has been asked to teach:

"Wait a minute here. Let me see if I have this straight. You create an online profile of yourself for total strangers to read and then get in touch with you? And why would anyone do that?"

Now, as a parent of a generation Y'er who has created a My Space account in stealth mode, I can somewhat relate. But as old foggies who deal with younger folks and might actually remember that Sunday night in February of 1964, we need to understand why the connected generation feels the way they do about Facebook, My Space, other entities; and why they do do the things that they do.

Personally, I love the spirit of generation X & Y! I love their sense of adventure; I love their sense of connection; I love their sense of expression; I love their unwillingness to robotically do as their told (don't tell my girls this though); I love their determination to find a better way; I love their propensity to embrace experience; And I love their desire to make a difference.

Kind of hard not to notice that I've been talking about the connected generation lately. I can't help it. Lisa Johnson made me do it! I am reading Lisa's book Mind Your X's and Y's and couldn't wait to finish it before talking about it.

I suspect that Daniel Ruth is more tuned in than what we (I) have deduced from his article. I also suspect though, that a whole lot of folks born prior to 1964 and have read Daniel's piece are relating to; "why do these young people do what they do?" And this concerns me.

Time to fire up the ride, kick out the jams and go cruising today. A rumbling muscle car, a little Space Truckin' by Deep Purple and vapor trails in Cyberspace - does it get any better?

By way of magic and technology, I begin the day in Hawaii at Starbucks sipping hot coffee with my friend Rosa Say. Rosa and I can discourse deep into spirituality, growing up or working at Woolworths, but today she simply tells me to check out a wonderful writer by the name of Verna Wilder . Rosa knows that I will connect with Verna because she knows Verna admires creative writer-coach Julia Cameron.

Back in the Cutlass, I change the eight track tape to The Best of Bread and a little Baby I'ma Want You. I roll into Colorado late morning and hook up with Verna. Spend one minute on Verna's site and you smell the fresh morning flowers of soulful expression...

"I like the idea of finding the shape of my life and defining it by
stepping into it, and as Marilyn says, opening my heart to who I am,
which means a lot of letting go of who I thought I might be or who I
was trying to be. Who I am is in there already, in my heart. I find that very comforting."

...Verna's love of sculpting words to fit her thoughts is postively neon!

"Dave, what's any of this got to do with work cultures?"

"Chill. I've got a half tank of gas and two more tapes. Lets get back to the Magic Carpet Ride."

Paperback Writer is just finishing up on the Kenwood as I pull into Terry Gold's office parking lot. Verna's directions are perfect. Walking through the front door, something strikes me as unusual. I think it's this conversation that I am over hearing. Terry is talking about the office of the future . His assistant, Angela Watson, injecting her thoughts on what should be in the office of the future:

"As part of my job as your assistant, I typically remind you of your
next meeting and often times have to run around the office to locate
you. My idea for “the office of the future” is to have a GPS tracking
devise on you at all times that would enable me to pull up a map online
and find your precise location."

pssssst, this is where the culture part starts surfacing...

The tone in Angela's voice is both serious and mischievous. Angela's demeanor perks my curiousity. Remember, she is talking to her boss here. I picture Terry as an entreprenuer always on the move, a cat with a high metabolic rate. I sort of fade back, away from their conversation and notice a matchbook lying on the floor. This seems odd. I get the feeling not many folks working here smoke. Inside the cover I notice an address. Back to the Cutlass.

The car's headers roar to life as the speakers roar The Wizard by Uriah Heep. The song is barely over as I pull into Angela's place. If there was any doubt before, this seals the deal. Terry Gold has created a tremendous work culture! Or perhaps more correctly, he has let a tremendous work culture evolve.

As a manager, I have an enourmous amount of respect and admiration for the culture at Terry's companyGold Systems . This type of work environment can do nothing but enhance a company's product and service!!

Do you remember that TV slogan ? "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." Well I felt the same way this morning when I opened up an e-mail advertising brief from Marcus Buckingham. Marcus has huge credibility following his career at the Gallup Organization and his run of top selling business books. I do not mind being marketed to from MB.

Marcus' mission is to bring a strengths revolution to the world of business. This simply means that there needs to be more of us utilizing our strengths at work. If one needs to hitch their wagon up to a revolution, and I do believe that all of us do at one time in our lives, the strengths revolution is the way to go.

Marcus' latest effort is a short film titled, Trombone Player Wanted. The film is actually a collection of six, fifteen minute DVD films designed to help us put our strengths to work.

In his last book, The One Thing You Need to Know, MB states that he is not a very good manager. Here is a cat that has arguably written the best book on management ever stating that he is not a good manager. But that is precisely where the beauty lies in searching out our strengths. And, although I haven't seen the film, I believe that it will help us to discover our strengths and put them to work.

Bren Connelly wrote a very popular manifesto titled Slacker@Work, over a year ago. It is free
and can be downloaded at Change This . Bren can be found at his most excellent Web site, Slacker Manager .

I first began visiting Bren’s site shortly after its initial
launch and read his manifesto about the same time. One only has to listen and open their eyes to
see Bren’s definition of slacker is not relative to the broad label that has
been slapped upon folks who appear to be doing less.

Bren says a slacker who is doing what is important to them,
can realize the benefit of pursuing their own interests while simultaneously
being seen as a superstar at work. A
gentleman I worked with fits the slacker definition to a tee. In his mid twenties, Kurt is indeed a
superstar at work. He also is passionate
about pursuing outside interests. Your
typical, unaware Baby Boomer manager would want Kurt to be even more involved at work. After all, he is that enormously talented, why wouldn’t he? But he doesn’t want to be. This is where unaware managers begin to apply
the slacker tag. The key to dialing Kurt
in however is to respect his outside interests. The key to dialing with precision is to introduce a connection to Kurt’s
outside interests and his day job. It
might not always be possible to do. Bren offers a series of tips to hone in on
slacker elitism:

Living the Golden Rule

Influencing work-related Mavens

The Four Hour Rule

Taking a Mental Health Day

Office effectiveness

Using lists

Effectiveness resources

Banishing procrastination

To enjoy Bren’s Web site and reap the most benefit from his
essays on management, life and effectiveness, you must first read his
insightful manifesto!

A special privilege that I am enjoying is to see how Bren has
evolved over the last year. To begin
with he continues to offer helpful ideas, points us in the direction of other
helpful people and does it with consistency. Of even greater magnitude in my eyes though,
Bren’s skills of developing his ideas and his writing have gone Chicago White
Sox.

It was Dave's first day on the job and he was talking with one of the managers.

"I have a tendency to just go and go. Every once in awhile you'll have to reel me back in."

Did Dave hear that right? Mitch stated that he had ambition. He then said that Dave would have to keep that ambition in check. It was time for Dave and Mitch to talk about boundaries.

"Mitch, I appreciate your enthusiasm brother. In Dave's world, as long as a company, we're going in the same direction, there are no boundaries and there are no limitations."

Dave had found over the years that once the fences were down, associates could run and run and run. He also found that once they had permission to run, they wouldn't run away. The mere fact that they knew the fences were down often caused a spike in motivation.

Dave also found that as a manager, he was more productive when associates like Mitch went about their business knowing there were no fences.